Minnesota bill includes teacher evaluation funding

Minnesota lawmakers passed a law two years ago to better evaluate teachers, putting in place a system of more-rigorous reviews based on classroom observations and improved student performance.

But they didn't give schools additional money to pay for the program, which could cost state schools anywhere from $66 million to $289 million annually to operate, depending on whom you ask.

School administrators and teachers now back a bill that would create a funding mechanism they say is necessary to conduct the comprehensive evaluations and provide the necessary training. That bill remains in committee at the Legislature.

"There's a lot more to it than meets the eye," Sen. Greg Clausen, an Apple Valley DFLer and school administrator, said of the new requirements.

The new teacher evaluation system will be mandatory for all districts during the 2014-15 school year. The Minnesota Department of Education is looking for 20 districts to test it next year.

Gov. Mark Dayton has proposed $10 million to launch the program, but many argue that falls far short of what it will actually cost districts.

Thomas Ames, superintendent of the Parkers Prairie and Truman school districts in northwestern and southern Minnesota, said rural districts in particular already are stretched to do more with less.

As an example, he told lawmakers about Darla Harstad, an elementary school principal in Parkers Prairie who also is guidance counselor and social worker -- and holds down a few other school jobs, too.

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Many principals are not equipped to provide the coaching and expertise needed for such an evaluation system, Ames said. That's going to mean time and money to either train them or hire people to do it.

"What part of Mrs. Harstad's 13-hour day are we going to take out?" Ames asked. "Or will we be hiring additional evaluators and coaches, and maybe we'll have to cut a kindergarten teacher?

"These are tough choices. These are very tough choices."

But no one can pinpoint the cost, and education leaders are trying to figure that out, said Kirk Schneidawind, deputy director of the Minnesota School Boards Association.

Some districts already have strong evaluation system in place, while others have more work to do and people to hire.

The school boards association along with the statewide teachers union Education Minnesota worked with Minnesota House researchers and estimated it would cost about $289 million annually for schools to run their evaluation programs, if they adopt a statewide model.

That includes expenses such as additional data and technology specialists, evaluation administrators, staff training and substitute costs for teachers while they're evaluating their peers, conferencing with principals or are in training.

Other pieces also must be developed, including more intricate ways to assess individual student achievement, particularly for areas that don't have standardized tests like art or physical education.

Some question the education groups' estimate and say it's too high.

When the teacher evaluation law passed two years ago, Minnesota Management and Budget at the time estimated the program could cost local districts from $60 million to $96 million annually, depending on how many evaluations are done.

It also assumed a higher ratio of evaluators-to-teachers than educators would like to see.

Regardless, the $289 million price tag is a huge jump from that estimate, said Sen. Branden Petersen, R-Andover.

"There is a great disparity in some of the assumptions that are being made on the costs," Petersen said.

"I don't dispute that there are costs, and I've even acknowledged that the costs are significantly more than the revenue being talked about here, and that's a valid point. But I wanted that to be stated for the record."

Even looking at states that are further along in their teacher evaluation process, it is still difficult to tell how much money it has cost them to develop and oversee these more intricate performance reviews for teachers.

Rhode Island's board of education approved an evaluation system in 2009. While all of the state's teachers and principals have an abbreviated version last school year, two school districts -- Warwick and Jamestown -- tested the full system. All of Rhode Island's 30 districts got the full system this year.

Rhode Island used about $18 million of its $75 million Race to the Top grant to launch its evaluation system, and most of the money was spent on training evaluators, said Elliot Krieger, a spokesman with the state's Department of Education.

But annual operating costs are borne by the local school districts. Krieger said the state doesn't track how much it costs the districts but said it was minimal.

"There are very large start-up costs, no doubt," Krieger said. "But the ongoing costs are nothing near that scale."

Conferencing should be done on free hours, before or after school, so there shouldn't be the need for a significant number of substitutes or money to pay for them, Krieger said.

"There's been no clamor for that here," he said. "It's just part of the education process."